Reports of Twitter's death greatly exaggerated, says CEO

Hints of new curated timeline leads to #RIPtwitter chatter, followed by smackdown

By Simon Sharwood,
7 Feb 2016

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has mostly quashed rumours that the struggling social network is introducing an algorithmically-curated timeline.

News that the company plans to change its distinctive stream of content presented in the order in which it was created emerged late last week and quickly spawned the #RIPtwitter hashtag as users expressed their aversion to the change. The root of users' ire was a desire to keep seeing everything the micro-blogging service collects, rather than curated selections.

Dorsey took to Twitter with the following to assure users the company has no such plan.

Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week.

So what has Twitter users so upset? Last year the company introduced a feature called “While you were away” that surfaced Tweets you may not have had a chance to see between logins. The company now plans to make that feature a little more prominent in its apps, but is also offering the chance to op-out of seeing old Tweets at all.

Whatever Twitter's up to, users' ire won't be welcome because the company recently cut 300 jobs and consistently clocks up quarterly losses. The company's share price is also ugly: currently shares sell for US$15.72, a long way from the $47 price this time last year and an April 2015 peak of $53.49. ®